For this essay, we were tasked with answering these questions: How does the allegory augment our understanding of the strengths and limitations to knowledge presented by the Ways of Knowing and for what real-world context(s) could the allegory provide a useful lens and how might such a lens augment our understanding of the world in which we live? We were asked to discuss how each element of the story correlated with a real life event and the ways of knowing going into detail.
Initially when I had started this assignment, I had absolutely zero idea what the story was about, what our assignment was even asking and how to even start and I can definitely see that reflected in my writing. Normally, I never do outlines for writing cause they take extra time that I don't care to spend, but it's really something I should get into the habit of doing. There were a lot of open ended statements, with no proof to hold them up (I have gotten this comment NEVER been good at in writing is conclusions. I never know how to sum up all of what I just said without just making a carbon copy of the intro, which I don't like doing, so my conclusions are usually just 2-3 sentences that add nothing (which you commented). Another thing I notice is a bunch of general grammar mistakes because I never proof read, which is something else I should start doing.
on nearly every single one of my essays I've written this year for all of my classes). As pointed out in my essay comments, I do give a lot of vague, unclear statements. Because I wrote the essay so long ago, I can only assume that they're vague because A) I didn't understand what I was saying or B) I was trying to reach the word count. Rereading the essay now, I couldn't tell you what I was trying to say. One thing I have
Though clearly not my strongest essay, there are a few strengths of which were commented on.When I do actually know what I'm talking about, I tend to give thorough, and lengthy explanations. Yet, within those lengthy explanations, I left vague statements. It's like a never-ending loop of mediocre writing.
If I were given the chance to rewrite this essay today, I would definitely start with an outline and drop my weak arguments. It would be light years better than what's currently written. Though, my conclusion, as usual, would still be a pile of garbage.
This past week (or 2 weeks ago, I don't remember), I had to give a group 90 minute presentation on Language! There were many things about this presentation that I enjoyed and think went great, yet there were many things I wish we could have talked about or at least researched.
Initially, when I had gotten the topic, I wasn't too excited. I didn't know where or how to start. Usually, teachers give me a specific outline of what should be talked about, but we were literally just given a topic and were told to talk about "how we know with it." Once we got the project out and rolling, it wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be.
I really enjoyed the short activity we had at the beginning where people were asked to try and say a sentence without words (essentially charades). I feel as though it was much better than the original activity plan we had, which was to try and communicate to someone using a different language. As much as that would have been fun, we didn't go into the aspect of different languages on our presentation, so I don't think it would have matched up.
Something else is that I did not to expect there to be much discussion in the class. From past experiences in my classes, anytime there is a discussion, it's always the same two or three people, plus the teacher talking. In this situation, a majority of the class had some input to add along. The discussions was never bland either. There wasn't a point where we were just repeating the same ideas over and over; we were always expanding.
If I could have changed one thing on the project, it would be the fact that I feel as if we could've done research on why there are so many different languages. I didn't see a purpose in the final part of our presentation, which was the how emotions tie in with language. I feel like it was kind of a "throw in at the last minute" type of deal. It didn't really provide any information that wasn't self explanatory, in my opinion. I also feel like we could have talked more about language in relation to culture, which ties in on how we didn't talk about different languages and dialect.
The presentation, in general, was not that bad. The group I was given was pretty good, and the way we arranged things was helpful as well. I was pretty nervous in the upcoming days up to the project, since we knew we would be the first group to present. I had never been given a project where I had to speak in front of a class for so long, and to be honest, it didn't feel as long as it was. The 90 minutes flew by! I didn't think I'd talk as much as I did.
Initially when I had started this assignment, I had absolutely zero idea what the story was about, what our assignment was even asking and how to even start and I can definitely see that reflected in my writing. Normally, I never do outlines for writing cause they take extra time that I don't care to spend, but it's really something I should get into the habit of doing. There were a lot of open ended statements, with no proof to hold them up (I have gotten this comment NEVER been good at in writing is conclusions. I never know how to sum up all of what I just said without just making a carbon copy of the intro, which I don't like doing, so my conclusions are usually just 2-3 sentences that add nothing (which you commented). Another thing I notice is a bunch of general grammar mistakes because I never proof read, which is something else I should start doing.